What is your metabolism? If you’re like most people, you’ve read about it and heard it defined many times, but you still find it difficult to explain.
Metabolism is the name of the process your body goes through to convert the energy in the food you eat into the energy your body needs to perform all its functions. Food energy is measured in calories.
While it’s a very complex process, basically your metabolism combines food energy with oxygen to create the energy your body needs.
If explaining metabolism is tough, then try “metabolic rate”. Your body’s basic, or basal, metabolic rate is the number of calories your body uses to carry out its basic functions, which are those that burn calories even when your body is at rest, including breathing, blood circulation, growing your hair, etc..
Many factors can affect your basal metabolic rate, including:
- The size of your body and its composition: Larger people and those with more muscle tissue burn more calories, both when they are at rest and during activity.
- Male or Female?: With generally less body fat than women of the same age and weight, men burn more calories.
- Age: As you age, you usually lose muscle mass and gain fat, both of which reduce the number of calories you burn.
The Myth of Weight Gain Due to a Slow Metabolism
While a lower basal metabolic rate burns fewer calories, each person’s rate is fairly consistent and your body adjusts to your rate to make sure you get the calories you need. That means, regardless of whether you have a slow or fast metabolic rate, your body balances its energy requirements to suit the rate.
How to Use Your Metabolism to Lose Weight
With a consistent basal metabolic rate, the only variables you have to work with to change your weight are the number of calories you consume and the amount of physical activity you do.
When it’s done properly, consuming fewer calories will usually result in lower weight. But, reducing your calories too drastically can cause your body to adjust your basal metabolic rate, which means you might still gain weight even on a reduced-calorie diet.
The best way to maintain your metabolic rate while consuming fewer calories is to make sure you give your body proper nutrition, in the form of the right foods and having the right nutritional supplement program.
That way, you consume fewer calories, but continue to burn them at the same rate as before.
And that leads to healthy weight loss.
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